Cultural Plunge

I went to LA for a conference but traveled with some PBA staff and students who went out early for a cultural plunge. Mark is the Director of Campus Ministries and Missions and he used to live in LA and work for an organization relocating refugees. So he took us to all things different from our usual. We went to a Hindu Temple, a Buddhist Temple, an Islamic Mosque, and a Temple for some religion that I had never heard of before and can't pronounce. We went to the observatory and looked through the "most looked through" telescope. I ate snails and Pazookie and used chopsticks. We had Pho with a crowd of Vietnamese, chum chum in little India, French-dipped sandwiches from Philipe's, walked the market in little Mexico, and tagged the wall by Muscle Beach to name a few. When it was time for me to fly home, I really did feel like I was re-entering the USA. But I never left.